Jean-Jacques Pérennès, O.P., vicar for the vicariate to the Arab World of the Dominican province of France, will visit Aquinas Institute of Theology October 18, 2007. The vicariate includes missions in Algeria, Egypt and Iraq.

Father Pérennès currently lives and works at the Dominican Institute of Oriental studies in Cairo, Egypt. He holds a Ph.D. in economics with an emphasis on development, and worked in Algeria for 10 years with Dominican Bishop Pierre Claverie before being named by Timothy Radcliffe, then Master of the Dominican Order, as his Assistant for the Apostolic Life and Promoter of Peace and Justice.

After Bishop Claverie’s assassination by extremists in 1996, Father Pérennès took time to further study Claverie’s significance as a promoter of peace and understanding in a turbulent world, eventually writing a book about Bishop Claverie’s life and thought which has now been translated into English as A Life Poured Out.

Jean-Jacques Pérennès is coming to the United States to talk about the situation in the Middle East, the role of the Dominicans in that region, and about Bishop Pierre Claverie’s life and legacy as a witness to peace and interreligious solidarity.